NTL & Telewest TV Drive

[pmanson]

Hi,

Has any one on NTL got a Telewest TV Drive Set Top box?

I fancy some Sky+ style action and I know Telewest offer the TV Drive but NTL don't offer an alternative on their website even though they are the same company.

Does any one know if I can ring NTL and get an upgraded box?

Regards,

Phill

[ThePassenger]

Despite being the same company the Telewest and NTL sides seem to be run independently for the most part. I doubt, if you're in an NTL area, it they'll send a Telewest branded box to you.

However, we've just received bumf that says Virgin has brought them and is rebranding the whole lot as Virgin Media... not a lot else as it's still in the works, but I'd wait and see how this develops.

[mervynp]

I got the same bumpf as well yesterday and as I was off sick and bored actually read it. They are offering a sky+ like service on the new Virgin branded services, but no details as yet.

[PJ S]

Even though they're now under one umbrella, NTL is lagging behind on the STB front.
But the converse of that is that they are lining up HD soon, with a better box than TW has - it'll have 3 tuners and a HDD.
How much, when? Your guess is as good as mine.

[ARH]

read www.avforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=257 it should answer all your q's

[PJ S]

ThePassenger said:

Virgin has brought them and is rebranding the whole lot as Virgin Media

Other way round - NTL/TW bought Virgin Mobile.

[lonny]

Mine is booked to be installed on 7th Feb. After 4 years of Tivo i'm kind of in 2 minds about the TVDrive - or V+ box as I think they are now calling it - the hardware is far superior with its 3 tuners etc but the software is no where near where tivo was 5 years ago - will miss my wishlists and tivo suggestions.

Another site for (mixed) reviews is :

www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=104

[page3]

lonny said:

Mine is booked to be installed on 7th Feb. After 4 years of Tivo i'm kind of in 2 minds about the TVDrive - or V+ box as I think they are now calling it - the hardware is far superior with its 3 tuners etc but the software is no where near where tivo was 5 years ago - will miss my wishlists and tivo suggestions.

Another site for (mixed) reviews is :

www.cableforum.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=104

Lots of people who don't want to miss out on TiVo's features seem to keep both. Some discussion at www.tivocommunity.com on the UK forum.

Me? Decided to keep TiVO and not bother with TVDrive. I just couldn't live without the ease of use (never having to see those awful Telewest menu's), (proper) season passes, suggestions, content streaming to office computer, video backup/iPod creation, daily status email report, remote web access, etc etc...

[ThePassenger]

PJ S said:

ThePassenger said:

Virgin has brought them and is rebranding the whole lot as Virgin Media

Other way round - NTL/TW bought Virgin Mobile.

Neat, odd that they'd rebrand the whole lot as a Virgin company... then again pay the price for using that brand and your laughing I suppose.

[PJ S]

ThePassenger said:

PJ S said:

ThePassenger said:

Virgin has brought them and is rebranding the whole lot as Virgin Media

Other way round - NTL/TW bought Virgin Mobile.

Neat, odd that they'd rebrand the whole lot as a Virgin company... then again pay the price for using that brand and your laughing I suppose.

Virgin as a brand is definitely stronger.
Now they can escape the NThelL castigation.
Spoke with one CS bod today about TVD, and they are firm on the pricing. Now, I always strikes me as being a slap in the face, when they (like mobile phone companies) seem to give greater incentives to newcomers than those who've paid in £000's of the years!

But, the only thing is once the rebrand takes effect, your e-mail address changes - he couldn't say for sure what the new name will be (virginmedia.com or co.uk seems fair), nor how e-mails are dealt with that are for you @ntlworld.com, etc.
So, that'll be fun having to deal with forwarded messages and changing mail properties to pick up the messages, etc.
Oh happy days!!

[mad mark]

according to the leaflet that came through my door we will have the option of changing address or keeping existing one.